South Irvine 2018 Spring-@-the-Q (Spring Select) season overview & registration instructions

The Spring-@-the-Q season is supposed to be a fun season for the Fall Extra and Winter All Star teams. We look at the teams in the following order of priority:

1. Fall 2017 Extra teams - the players invited to be on the Fall 2017 Extra team are entitled to be on the team for the entire Membership Year (where the membership year runs from 2017 August 1 to 2018 July 31. Coaches cannot cut players from the team during the Membership Year. The parents/guardians of players on the Fall Extra team can decide to leave the team and we now have a process for officially notifying the coaches and the Region that they are leaving the team or continuing with the team. If the Fall Extra team cannot field enough players to be considered a team, then those players can be invited to fill holes on the All Star team or combine with All Star players to form a new "hybrid" team.
   
   
2. Winter All Star teams - if the priority is to focus on the Fall Extra teams first, then the Fall Extra teams that will be playing Spring-@-the-Q should be recruiting players off the All Star team to fill openings.  All Star coaches must encourage players to accept and join the Extra team playing in Spring -- coaches should not be trying to "protect" their All Star team or trying to keep it intact if there is a chance players can join the Extra players to play Spring-@-the-Q. If, after the Extra team has filled openings, there are enough All Star players remaining and the All Star team was reasonably competitive during the All Star season, then the All Star coach should be approaching those players who were considered and did not make the All Star team to fill any openings.
   
   
3. Fall 2018 Extra Teams - The last priority is to place focus on pulling together the players who will most likely be on next year's Fall Extra team. The focus for the 2018 Spring-@-the-Q program is to encourage existing Fall 2017 Extra and Winter 2018 All Star players to continue playing at the higher competitive level within this Membership Year. Coaches should only be looking to the future after making sure all current players are given an opportunity to continue playing in the current Membership Year. Tryouts and player selections are usually too late to make sure the Spring-@-the-Q team represents the Fall 2018 Extra team. So, please, coaches... focus on the present Membership Year rather than trying to form your Fall 2018 Extra teams early.
   
   

If there are not enough players from both Fall 2017 Extra and Winter 2018 All Star teams to form Spring-@-the-Q teams, then please encourage them to register for the Spring Core program.

Keep in mind that coaches with Spring-@-the-Q may want to evaluate players to be integrated into their teams. Please read through the registration instructions below on the registration requirements prior to inviting a player to be evaluated.

Registration Information, Explanations, and Details

Registration for Spring-@-the-Q is significantly different than the Core program registration. Please read through the entire explanation below to understand why we are implementing registration this way in addition to how it is being implemented.

The basic idea is to have all Fall 2017 Extra players and Winter 2018 All Star players to register for the Spring-@-the-Q program "Tryout" whether you are going to accept or decline. We want 100% of all players to register so parents/guardians of all players can use the Blue Sombrero system to officially indicate whether their child will or will not be participating in the Spring-@-the-Q program.

Registration instructions for current Fall 2017 Extra or Winter 2018 All Star players

Here is an overview or the steps if your child played on either the Fall 2017 Extra or Winter 2018 All Star teams. If your child did not play on one of the teams and a coach is inviting you for evaluation, then please use the instructions for you below:

• The first step for all current All Star and Extra players to register for the 2018 Spring Select program. You will be registering (at no cost) for the Tryout although you are not actually trying out for the Spring Select program. This is just the term Blue Sombrero uses for this Invite Only version of the registration process.
• We will send you an invitation to register as soon as we are able to. You now have 3 options:
  1. If you know your child is not going to be playing Spring Select, then please notify us immediately by declining the invitation. We would prefer you use this method of indicating your child will be participating than to send an email to your team's coach because it allows the Region to confirm your decision -- we don't always get to see your email to the coach.
  2. If you know your child is available and wants to play on a Spring Select team without regard to the actual team (Fall 2017 Extra, Winter 2018 All Star, or Hybrid), then please accept the invitation and complete the registration. This creates the "pool" of interested players before we can go in and sort out the teams which will be playing in the Spring Select program.
  3. If you are undecided about Spring Select and your child definitely wants to play in Spring, then register for both Spring Core and do not accept or decline the Spring Select invitation until you decide. Please, however, make your decision no later than February 10.

Registration instructions for players being evaluated for a Spring-@-the-Q team that are NOT currently not on either the Fall 2017 Extra or Winter 2018 All Star teams.

Here is an overview or the steps if your child was invited to be evaluated and was not on either the Winter 2018 All Star or Fall 2017 Extra teams:

• The first step is to register for the 2018 Spring Select program. You will be registering (at no cost) for the Tryout (although your child is being "evaluated") for the Spring Select program. Print out the release of liability and hand it to the coach prior to the start of the evaluations.
• If you know your child wants to play Spring soccer whether they are invited to join a Spring Select team or not, then please make sure you also register for the Spring Core program as well. If your child is invited to join a Spring Select team, then we will cancel and refund the Spring Core registration.
• The coach will let us know if your child will be invited to the team or not.
  • If your child is going to be invited, then we will use Blue Sombrero to send an invitation by email to you. You need to log into your account and either decline the offer or accept it as soon as possible. Registration will become available to you if you accept. Please complete the registration as soon as possible.
  • If your child is not going to receive an invitation, then we will use Blue Sombrero to send a "Didn't Make the Team" email to let you know the coach's decision.